Monday, 4 November 2013

Book Review: If I Die Young by Talia Jager

Title: If I Die Young

Author: Talia Jager

Pages: 155

Format: Kindle ebook

Goodreads Average Rating: 4.18/5

My Rating: 4/10

Synopsis from Goodreads

When Caelyn Noel was diagnosed with asthma five years ago, it put a damper on things. Now, she’s sixteen and things are finally going her way. She has loving parents, the best friend ever, and the boy she has had a crush on since elementary school has finally noticed her. Then, she collapses in school one day. To her horror, she finds out her heart is failing and she must have a heart transplant to live. Caelyn struggles with her fear of dying and worries of having someone else’s heart.

Review

Really I had one major issue with this book. I liked the characters and thought the plot was pretty good to begin with, and so I thought that I'd love it. This didn't quite pan out, because like I mentioned I had one major issue with the book.

The pacing. I felt like the pacing of this story was really off. Somethings felt like they needed developing a lot, but it would skip over it in just a couple of pages, sometimes even in just a few lines. The scenes felt too short and undeveloped, and as a result the book for me felt a little choppy.

The problem for me is that I felt this book could have done with being quite a bit longer, leaving room for the plot and characters to develop more.

The other thing which had me knocking my rating down a couple of points, is that the second half of the book, though it started better than the first half, ended up being really rushed and a bit unbelievable. I honestly didn't like the ending at all.

Overall this was just an ok book, the ending let it down and I found the pacing to be off leaving the book underdeveloped.